Hated Out

Recently on twitter, I voiced my opinion about authors who complain about certain Commander strategies.  My biggest complaint was that they were discouraging people from playing these strategies rather than offering up solutions to defeat these strategies.  I figured that if I was going to criticize authors about how they write, I should do it in a way that is constructive.  This article will cover some of the most hated strategies in Commander, and ways to deal with them other than just stop playing with the players who use them.

#1 – Arcum Dagsson’s prison lock

This consists of a Darksteel Forge protecting either a Winter Orb/Static Orb + Icy Manipulator or the more common Mycosynth Lattice + Nevinyrral's Disk.

The easiest way to stop these combos is to remove the Forge from the game, so that you can use regular artifact destruction on the other pieces.  As an added bonus, all of these cards are good at destroying any artifacts (Blightsteel Colossus).  So, you don’t have to worry about them being useless when you are not playing against combo.  You can use some of the following spells;

Altar’s Light

Amulet of Unmaking

Dust to Dust

Furnace Dragon

Into the Core

Return to Dust

Revoke Existence

Splinter

#2 Erayo + Arcane Laboratory

This combo creates a lock that counters every spell you cast.  The Erayo based general decks are some of the most unfun decks around.

The best ways to deal with Erayo is to play spells that can’t be countered and cheat your cards into play.  The nice thing about doing this is that cheating big creatures in and using uncounterable spells are never bad strategies.  Here are just a few recommendations;

Aether Vial

Belbe’s Portal

Boseiju, Who Shelters All 

Call of the Wild

Cryptic Gateway

Gaea’s Herald

Leyline of Lifeforce

Root Sliver

Spellbreaker Behemoth

Vexing Shusher

#3 Zur the Enchanter + Necropotence (or some other crazy enchantments) 

On the Commander forums, Zur has been voted the most hated general in Commander.  In a multiplayer setting, everyone turning on the Zur players generally takes him down very easily.  This deck is built around its general so much that any effect that takes control of Zur, throws him on the bottom of a library, destroys all enchantments, or prevents players from searching shut him down completely.  Any of these tactics give you cards that are useful in a number of situations. Here are some of my favorite answers to Zur (there are a ton of answers);

Aven Mindcensor

Bant Charm

Condemn

Hallowed Burial

Hinder

Leonin Arbiter

Mind Control

Mindlock Orb

Proteus Staff

Tranquil Grove

#4 Uril the Mistalker

Uril, like Zur is much more difficult to deal with in 1v1 battles.  In group games, there are enough board wipes to counter his troll shroud.  When I fight against an Uril deck, I find the best course of action is to either counter Uril, and make sure he never touches down, or have enough board control that he isn’t able to swing through.  The cards I have found that deal with Uril better than any other are as follows;

Austere Command

Hallowed Burial

Final Judgement

Aurification

Constant Mists

Blazing Archon

Flooded Woodlands

War Tax

Ensnaring Bridge

Fog Bank

Magus of the Moat

Stormtide Leviathan

These are just a few examples of problems and possible solutions to those problems.  If you don’t particularly like a style of deck, make sure to build your deck in a way that stops players from wanting to play that deck against you.  You will find it is much more fun to consistently crush the players who you believe are playing degenerate decks, than it is to just complain about them.

Feel free to message or email me anytime if you would like advice on dealing with a particular problem.  Thank you for reading!